He Brought Me Out
by Donna Nelson
He brought me out of the miry clay
He set my feet on the Rock to stay
He puts a song in my soul today,
A song of praise, Hallelujah.
That is what Jesus has done for me. He has taken me out of the miry clay and given me a life. He has given me more than I ever knew was possible. I did not know about life in the Spirit. I did not know that the Jesus I had heard and learned about my whole life would one day give me life in my soul. I "went to church" my whole life; I read the Bible; I sang in the choir; I helped with Sunday School; I played the piano; I even went to college and received a degree in Christian Education. But until Jesus touched my heart, I never knew Him.
My husband had talked with a friend, Ellen Payne, one day about speaking in tongues, and she said that speaking in tongues was the evidence of the new birth. When he asked me about it and if I believed that was true, I (in my ignorance) said, "No, there’s nothing like that in the Bible. They have just gotten mixed up in some kind of cult." There was never any question in my mind. Some years previous to this I had heard people speaking in tongues just a few times, and I wondered why they were doing that. When I asked about it, I was told that was something extra, like a prayer language, just for a closer walk with God. In my own mind, I thought right then that if it wasn’t required, I didn’t want it. But Praise God!!! God knew I DID have to have that holy Ghost baptism to be clean; and He didn’t leave me to my own misunderstandings and ignorance of Him.
About a year later, I remember having a thought one day while I was riding down the road. "Maybe I don’t know everything about the holy Ghost. Maybe I should do a study on it." I never considered that what Ellen had said a year earlier was true. I just thought that I should have more information on it, that I could possibly learn something. I decided to do a study and find out more about the spirit of God.
I got my hands on every study, book, pamphlet and sermon I could get. One night when my husband was away on a business trip, I decided it was a good time to start reading. The first pamphlet I read contained only Scriptures about the holy Ghost. As I finished reading, I knew I did not have what those people in the Scriptures were talking about. I did not have "power," a power to help me live every day without sin. God put in my heart a desire to seek Him, a desire for the holy Ghost. For the first time I knew I needed something I did not have. I needed the holy Ghost.
I decided that I would read Acts next. When I started reading, the words came to life. They were no longer just words printed in a book, Jesus was giving life to every word. They seemed to be pouring from the pages into my eyes and down into my heart. I read about Jesus telling the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the promise, that John baptized with water, but that they would be baptized with the holy Ghost. Oh! And when I got to chapter two and read about the day of Pentecost and that mighty rushing wind coming - I knew that was what I was longing for.
Many times I had to close my Bible and examine the outside of it. I was having a hard time believing that this was the same book I had read my whole life. But it was! The difference was the spirit of God was giving life to those words on the pages and putting them down into my heart.
As I continued my study on the holy Ghost, I read other books and sermons (which I had picked up earlier), but it was not the same reading them as when I read the Bible. God let me be able to see the difference between truth and man’s opinion very clearly. All those other books and sermons had little bits of truth in them, but they were so mixed up with that person’s opinion -- they were too difficult to read. I went back to the Bible. It wasn’t mixed.
One night while I was alone praying in my bed, a wonderful and fearful presence came into the room. God showed me that how I had always thought of him was filth before Him. Now, I must insert here that up to this time I had been a Christian. I was not pretending, or acting one way at home and then just acting religious when I went to church. I believed what I was taught about God as I was growing up in church. So when God showed me that EVERY way that I thought of him was filth before him, do you know what that meant to me? That meant ALL my Christian ideas of how to serve God, everything I had been taught about who God was, EVERY ONE of them was filth before him!!! God said it was FILTH. I believed Him, and let go of all of it. In that moment, with just God and me in my room, I released EVERY thought, EVERY way I thought of God! I let it all go! Praise His Holy name forever and ever!
It wasn't long after that my neighbors, the Paynes, took me to a backyard picnic. I wanted to meet all these people they knew and who had the holy Ghost. I remember a good feeling when we walked through the gate going into the backyard. I felt as if I was home, that I was with family. On towards the evening, still outside in the yard, they gathered and began to pray. I had never been around people praying in tongues together. I really wanted to see what was going on. I drew closer and I saw one or two people walk up to their pastor, John, and he would put his hands on their head and pray for them. I knew that whatever these people had (the holy Ghost!) was what I wanted. I went up and they began to pray for me.
I could hear people shouting and praising God. Inside me, as I stood there in that backyard with my hands up in the air, I was asking God to fill me with His spirit. The only thought I had was to get down, in that backyard, flat on my face before God. I kept thinking, “God, these people will think I’m crazy! I can’t put my face down on the ground.” The feeling was so strong I finally got down on my knees - maybe that was good enough. No, it wasn't - and after a little while I got up, still praying. The only thing I kept so strongly feeling was to get down on my face. I tried once more going to my knees even bowing lower - but it wasn't enough. I finally just gave up and submitted to God. I laid face down on the ground - whew! That was the only thing I could do to find relief, to completely obey. I didn’t get the holy Ghost that night, but I learned something very important. Half obedience is not obedience at all. God was teaching me to obey him.
Just a few months later, I received the baptism of the holy Ghost. One particular day, when many saints in the Lord had been praying for me, I remember finally totally surrendering with all my heart to Jesus. And what I immediately saw in my mind was Jesus with His hands outstretched and words saying, "There is no fear in trusting me." For the first time I knew I didn't have to be afraid of surrendering my heart wholly to Jesus and the love He had for me. And when Jesus taught me to not be afraid to trust him, he was also teaching me the meaning of the prayer in Psalms, "Unite my heart to fear thy name." Whew!!! Glory to God! God gave me his sweet spirit.
I used to be content being a good Christian. But oh! The great mercy God has had on my life! I am not a Christian now and was not when I received the baptism of the holy Ghost! Have you ever heard of such a thing? I haven’t either, but here I am. This is what God has done for me. I have heard some people say, “We are really saying the same thing; you are just using different words.” But that is not so. I would have lived my whole life thinking I was serving God - and would have died in my sins. Follow after Jesus and love and obey the Spirit of God. God will take you somewhere you never knew existed! Glory to God!
Years earlier I had been sitting on my couch reading Matthew 13:15: "For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." My prayer years ago, as I sat there alone on my couch was, "God, if I am like that, please change me." And He has. God has done every bit of it. And He can do that for anyone. It takes no extraordinary person -- it just takes God.
